Legends of Percy Jackson: The Last Flame
by 3rdGenHowardWriter
Summary: In this story things aren't the same. Gods? Dead, gone, using different words doesn't make a difference. The world needs to change but no one is able. Protagonists: Percy, Nico, Leo.  Antagonists: Everyone else. If you want more chapters, review.
1. I Go Dentist With a Harpy

**C****hapter 1**

**Percy's POV**

I am not really sure what to say right now, but for starters my life is hard. I don't have much fun, no friends, not much family left, and it's getting harder and harder not to give up on life. For someone like me death doesn't seem like such a terrible thing if it means no worries and no responsibility. It's better than remembering certain events of my past, and way better than sitting up at night crying to myself. It would actually be better than a lot of thing in my life, but giving up is still not an option. That would mean leaving my mom alone in this world and destroying whatever sense of hope she still had left. No matter what word I use to describe my feelings whether it's unbelievable, obscene or insane, I could never describe my love for her. Her name is Sally Jackson and she's basically what keeps me from freezing over in this cold world where everything withers and dies. She can do everything. She's my cook, best friend, teacher, therapist and occasional doctor. My name is Perseus Jackson, though I prefer Percy, and I am 14. I am pretty tall have dark black hair and have sea green eyes. I'm extremely loyal to my mom and live in a place called New York.

I have never left New York in my entire life and I still can't think of something good about it. This place is dark cold and in ruins. It's now been 3 months since I have seen another human in the city. My friend Grover told me it wasn't always like this. He said that it used to be a magnificent city with millions of people that were free to do whatever they wanted. He also told me that there was something called the mist that would hide monsters from view.

Every thing he says seems too good to be true, or at least super exaggerated because a world where you can't see monsters and a place where people are free, doesn't even make a good joke. I've read the word freedom in the dictionary but it's not a word that should exist because I've never _ever _seen it. I used to have crazy dreams like that when I was younger but I'm smarter now. Even though Grover told lies he was a great friend and it was heart breaking when he died three years ago.

There is something for certain though, some fifty years ago there were gods living here in New York, and they ruled the west for thousands of years until Kronos took over. Well a long story short, Kronos rose to power with the help of Luke Castellan and took over. Castellan was the son of the Greek god Hermes, and stole the symbol of power of Hades and Zeus as a part of Kronos' plan. A three way war began and in the confusion Luke brought back Kronos. Who then helped him bring back the rest of the titans. When the idiot gods finally found out what was going on there forces were down to half and they didn't stand a chance against the Titan Army. Now the gods suffer eternally in different prison all over the place. Ares now holds up the sky, Zeus is chained down in a prison of lava and other gods are going through different things. The war completely destroyed New York, so instead of rebuilding it the Titans use it as a massive monument representing order, death, and defeat.

The trees have spread uncontrollably, now they grow in the middle of the streets, and in buildings. Half destroyed buildings litter a once beautiful place. Monsters live everywhere, nights are never safe and there is no longer any law.

Me and my mom live in a canning factory. We used to move around from safe house to safe house but once we found out this place with all its food we decided to stay. We've been here about six months and figure if we stick to our 2 meal per day menu we can stay another 2 years. We re-arranged almost every part of the factory, so that now we have a kitchen, closets, bedrooms and other stuff. Aside from those rooms there is the machinery room which is our over sized, dark, and scary pantry.

Between me and my mom the favorite room is our library, no contest. Even though the entire factory has books lying around, the library is loaded with the coolest books you can imagine. Like a class room, it's where my mom teaches me stuff and she teaches me a lot. She has taught me how to read and write in French, English, Portuguese and Greek. I know, I know, you're probably wondering why she taught me Greek. I'm not sure myself but she insisted and it's really not as hard as it seems.

Anyway, ever since I can remember she's had a large collection of books. On literally any subjects: from math and physics to stuff like _martial arts for dummies_. Me and her spend hours reading everyday. Out of all her books she has two favorite topics. My mom is an ancient mythology geek. She has about fifty huge books about Greek and Roman mythology. I dig the subject too. My favorite stories are about the legendary heroes who could go anywhere, do anything and challenge anyone. To my mom my education is really important, but she doesn't really teach me normal thing. She teaches me survival techniques, good cooking recipes, about machines and weapons, and only every once in a while do we do math and physics. I read on my own a lot, but my life still isn't relaxed.

One thing that's important to know about survival is that you need water. Every morning I wake up and the first thing I do is get water. Once you find water then you can do whatever else you need to do, but without water you won't get far. My daily chores are finding water, gas, checking on our traps, and scaring off an occasional monster. I used to split the work with Grover and my sister but they're dead. When I remember them I get sad but they are only two of a thousand other people that have died whether down the street or right next to me. My mom offers to help me with my chores all the time, but she's all I got left and it's not worth the risk.

Speaking of risks let me explain the tactical position the factory is in. I'd say the good to bad ratio is, okay. It's not the safest place but it does allow a lot more free time considering it's loaded with canned food, which saves me a lot of trouble. The good thing about the factory is that it's far a way from the city, monsters, and is stacked with food...and, that's about it. The bad things about the factory are that there are a lot of windows, it can be easily surrounded, it is impossible for two people to defend, and there is absolutely no escape rout.

The factory is an old run down two story building. It was probably once white but is now a mixture of gray and green. The front entrance opens up to a forest and the back entrance to the ocean. It looks like a really scary place but makes a good home. There are a number of large rooms inside and each one has a new purpose. We don't have mattresses and there are a few cockroaches.

Well, let's talk about the future. Tomorrow it happens to be my mom's birthday and I'm planning to go to the nearest bookstore or library to get her a birthday present. She loves books and I am pretty sure there some kind of book place 10 miles down south. It will take me a lot longer than normal to get there since I have to be stealthy and watch my back so I'm leaving early tomorrow morning.

**Percy's POV**

"Whyyyyy?" part of me asked, but I knew why. It was my mom's birthday and it was the first actual adventure since last year. I sat up eagerly and looked at my alarm clock. It was 3:00 a.m. I had to leave now if I didn't want my mom to notice I was gone. I got out of my improvised room and walked into a narrow hallway. The walls were the usual, paint slowly chipping off, faded colors and the smell of rotten moldy wood. I walked inside the maintenance room which was one of our closets. There I found a flash light, some batteries, a rope, some cloth and a first aid kit. I shoved it all in my backpack and walked through the machinery room into the kitchen. I got out a large, insanely sharp cooking knife, just in case, a water bottle and a can of peaches. The kitchen is also our main entrance so I unlocked our door took a deep breath and walked into the open. You might be thinking I am an idiot for walking into a monster-infested forest night, in the dark and alone. First of all this isn't something I do often. Second of all I have a well developed theory; "If your enemy is in sight/range than so are you". Then you say: And how does that prove your point? Well, if I can't see any thing than nor can anyone else. I didn't feel less scared but I set out with my senses at 110%.

I walked at a slow but constant pace erasing my tacks as I went. It took about half an hour to get a mile away until I finally gave up and started walking normally. The library was about 10 miles from where I was, so it would probably take me just over 2 hour to get there. I walked in absolute silence for a while, occasionally crouching and sprinting to different places whenever I felt company. Of course not because I was scared it was just the safe thing to do.

As I walking through the city, I started to think about my life, and what I really wanted. Surely a few books wouldn't be enough to cheer my mom out of our situation. I thought about how we barely survived, always alert, scared and weak. The monsters that attacked our house were never organized or constant. They, whoever that is, probably the greater force were focused on something else, proving that I was insignificant. I was getting frustrated and reckless, making more noise as I walked through the forest. I needed to change this world. I had been reading about a man called Martin Luther King Jr. who said something interesting.

He said "Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent." That was going to be an impossible stunt to pull. He got the privilege to say "we", while I was alone, just "me".

The bush on my right shook violently, and it brought me right out of my thoughts.

"Dang" I muttered. I backed up, crouched and raised my arms ready to roll out of the way.

"Screech!¡!" My hand raced onto my ears and the beast flew at me. While I was a little bit off balance I managed to roll out of the way. It did a 180 degree spin and came at me with amazing speed. This time I didn't have enough time to dodge; it closed in and planted its teeth an inch into my right arm. With my left I hit it full force on the head and shock it off. It slid away on the ground a dozen feet while I checked my wounded arm. There was a small oval shaped mouth bite, I panicked and looked at my attacker for the first. It had a body of a bird slightly bigger than a chicken's, long silky wings, and a woman's head. A harpy, I remembered learning with my mom, but something wasn't right harpies were famous for traveling in packs. I looked at my enemy again. It looked dazed, but its eyes were completely black. The eyes mirrored the lust that the harpy must have been feeling. Then I understood the situation. There were no reinforcements; this monster was barley rational and not even sane: wild. I charged but he rose 50 feet in the air. As she hovered, she looked me in the eyes before she dove. Her mouth was wide open and before she impaled herself into me I reached out. We hit the dirt my hand in her mouth and her talons scratching at my chest. We rolled on the floor until I was finally able to trap her in my legs. Blood trickled down my arm and I figured I had forty second before my fingers got completely sawed off. I pulled as hard as I could; I ignored the pain, and saw her jaw stretching a bit too far, then SNAP! Her mouth hung limply on her face as she started disintegrating.

I knelt, gasping for air, while I watched the monster disintegrate. I flung my backpack off my shoulder and pulled out the first aid kit. Right now, you might be thinking "Well, Perce why didn't you pull out that knife you packed" well it turns out that normal steel doesn't work on monsters and I learnt that the hard way. I looked down at my chest and my shirt was torn to pieces. While my shirt once white it was now dark red. I took out an antiseptic ointment and dabbed it all over my chest and hands. The wounds on my chest weren't as bad as I expected, aside from the blood loss it was nothing serious. My fingers though were half sawn off and I could barely move them. I wrapped myself up, did a halfhearted clean up job, packed and headed off towards the library.

As I walked I took out my water bottle and drank about half of it and then screwed the cap back on. I put it away because I knew I would need it for the way back, and that was okay because now I was changed, fresh and full of energy. I don't know why it does that to me, my chest stopped bleeding and my hands no longer hurt as much. I did read somewhere that water was the elixir of life but it doesn't have the same effect on my mom.

It was still dark so I thought about using my flashlight but it might alert more monsters that I was there so I let it go and kept walking. The trees became fewer and soon I was in the surrounded by hundreds of concrete buildings.

"Should be around here somewhere…" I thought aloud. I checked the entrances of the buildings around me, deciphering the dusty names in the dark. Finally I found it. It was a large square, gray, four story building. The door creaked as I opened, adding to the spooky aura of the place. I turned on my flashlight and closed the door behind me. Dust hung in the air making the rays of light visible. I checked my surroundings pointing the flashlight at everything around me, and all I saw were piles of books. Even though this place was scary there was no way I could be happier. This was a reason for a party. I had made it. My mom would be on a happiness high when she saw how great of a son I was. The thought made me smirk.

The place was huge there was a second floor balcony, stairs that were meant for you to sit on and a blockbuster on the third and fourth floor. It probably took me about twenty minutes to find the right books, and I was starting to get tired. I went up to the second floor, sat down and put my back against the banister. I sat there for a minute and sighed before reaching for my backpack. I pulled out the can of peaches and opened it with the cooking knife. I pulled out a peach and ate it a bite at a time. I was licking my fingers when someone next to me spoke.

"Hey. How long are you just going to sit there" A girls voice said.

She didn't say anything offensive but right then my heart stopped, my whole body shook and I bit down on my finger hard.

"Owww. Why you little-" I was lost for words when I saw her. She was probably eighteen or nineteen, had long dark hair, and a perfect body, but that's not what got my attention. She was upside-down, hair falling towards the floor and there was laso her blue eyes. What the? I thought. The ceiling seemed to be holding onto her feet and even though she was a good distance away from me I could see her eyes clearly. Her face was expressionless but her eyes were cold and testing. She was obviously didn't expect me to answer because right then a long silver hunting knife appeared in her hand and she kicked off the ceiling and landed on the floor. Then she charged.

"Hold on" I barely managed but she was not stopping so I changed plan. She swung at me but only hit air. I had found the courage, jumped over the balcony, and was sailing towards the first floor. The seconds took longer than usual and I realized that I was going to fall on a table. I braced myself with my left arm and then-CRASH! Wooden shards flew in every direction, my arm was pierced by a million splinters and I swore I heard my arm snap. I rolled away from the broken table, looked up in time to see the girl shake her head in disbelief and mouth the word _crazy_. _More enemies_, I thought, _just great_. I got up and ran out the door not daring to look back. I jumped over fences and dodged trees that grew in the middle of the streets. My legs hurt but I still ran.

**Third Person POV**

Well isn't that interesting, the man thought. He had gone unnoticed by the boy who ran out of the building next to him. He had long dirty blonde hair that was tied back in a ponytail. He walked in the library and watched his partner slowly walk down the stairs. She was tall, had black hair and her name was Lalantos: titaness of hunt.

"So what's the plan, are we going to let him get away?" the man asked

She was definitely thinking about something else but answered casualy.

"Let's let him think he's got away so he will go back to wherever he may be staying. Who knows it might be fun."

Disgusted but satisfied the man started walking out the door. Then he thought twice about Lalantos' expression and turned.

"Lal do you think he is the one?" It was a vague question but she understood. She continued walking and then gave an even vaguer answer.

"Maybe" she said anxiously, as she squeezed passed him.


	2. My Mom Let's Out Gas

**Chapter 2**

**Percy's POV**

Have you ever run a mile during P.E and finished completely exhausted, well try running _ten_ miles. I was back in the forest running for my life, pushing branches away from my face. The sky was as dark as ever and there was a slight mist forming in between the trees. Not good, I thought. Visibility zero was the last thing I needed; the trees alone were easy to get lost in but I guess since that hadn't worked the heavens thought a good thick mist would do the trick.

My legs felt like they had been dipped in acid and my chest had started bleeding again. The pain was ludicrous. I was dying, there was not enough oxygen circulating my body. I collapsed and inhaled desperately I turned onto my back and squeezed my heart trying to drown the pain. Water, I thought. I could no longer breathe when I finally managed to yank off the cap of my water bottle. The water bottle was empty before I knew it. Life flowed back into my body, my body worked again. The moment of panicked was over, never again I promised my body.

"pant-pant-How?" I said quietly. I had studied the human body in books and water never had an effect that drastic on people. I could have sat down and spent all day thinking about the miracle but I had bigger things to worry about. I looked up and the sky was getting slightly lighter, not much time after the first birds started chirping. I flung my backpack over my shoulder and started walking trough the forest, occasionally leaning up against a tree to catch my breath. In a matter of minutes, the outline of the factory became visible and my pace sped up. I reached the kitchen door ready to faint but I pushed the door open.

"Ahh! Oh my, Percy thank the gods it's just you" Her expression changed three times: it went from shocked, to relieved, to whatever is worse than shocked. I decided to take a break, look at myself for a moment, and see what was wrong. Summarizing I was blown away in a bad way. I looked horrible my hair was messed up and dirty, my face covered I blood and grime, my shirt torn with bloody bandages underneath, a gash on my arm, bandaged hands and a bunch of splinters stuck in my left leg and arm. I gave her a halfhearted smile, but her face remained stern.

"Perseus Jackson, what in the world is going on?" my mom asked. I hesitated but then told her the whole story. I told her about the library, the harpy and the girl. When I finished the only thing, you could hear was the clock ticking in the background. Then my mom swore for the first time in her life.

"Shit" She muttered and ran across the room and pulled out a wickedly sharp cooking knife. I just stood there watching in confusion. First she walked up to the stove stood there for a moment and then cut our yellow gas cord in half.

"WHAT THE HECK!" I bellowed. My mom acted as if nothing had happened. I panicked at the smell of gas, she had just dug our grave a dozen feet deeper and now we were in serious, serious trouble. I didn't know what she was planning but just then windows somewhere in the building broke. I heard glass slide around on the floor, but I was distracted when a huge ant broke down the kitchen doorway. My heart skipped a beat when I realized what it was: a myrmeke. I remembered learning about them; they were very rare, very powerful, large Indian ants that liked shiny stuff. This one was particularly large though, so big it couldn't get through the doorway. It snapped its pierces a couple times and then backed away to let someone through. A man with long dirty blonde hair tied back in a ponytail and the girl from before walked in. At the same five monsters in bronze shiny armor burst though the door behind us and raised their bows. They were teleklines, monsters that were half dog half seal, and each one had an arrow that was glowing slightly in the dark.

I looked at my mom for confidence but she was obviously just as scared as me. I was trying to act confident, but the percent of our success was to slim. My heart was pounding, sweat was seeping off my chin, and my legs had turned to Jell-O. My mom was looking at the man in a mixture of fear and awe.

"Promethus w-what are you doing here" my mom stuttered. My heart skipped a beat again. My mind was racing, the first thing I thought was "She knows him?", then "Isn't Promethus the name of a titan", and then I concluded "Oh my gods she knows a titan". We stumbled back into a corner and I stepped forward as a human shield.

"Sally Jackson, you sure have gotten into a sticky situation" Promethus said smiling. I felt my mom's hand slip into my backpack.

"I've still got plenty of options you monster" my mom said. She pulled out a peach can and threw it at one of the monsters, then screamed.

"Percy go!" I hadn't planed anything but I ran at the monster in the left corner. Two or three shot arrows whizzed past my head, and stuck in the wall behind me. At the same time my mom charged the titaness but there wasn't much contest. The girl dodged my mom's attempt of a punch and kneed her in her stomach. I couldn't turn around and help plus my body was moving to fast so I tackled the monster into the nearest bookshelf. When we hit I could hear the sound of the wood snapping and the glass breaking. We hit the floor and started to struggle: the book shelf started to tilt, and then it picked up speed and fell over us. I rolled over using the monster as a shield just in time for a wooden shard to pierce his neck. It stopped an inch away from my face, it scared me out of my mind but I managed to push myself out of the wreckage.

When I got up my mom was unconscious, the monster that my mom hit with a peach can was on the floor with another monster leaning over him, while both titans eyed me cautiously. I turned around desperately and ran towards the doorway. An arrow hit my backpack and sent me flying into the machinery room. Thank the gods for arrow proof books! The machinery room was like a maze and amazingly that's exactly what I needed, it was my only hope. It had stacked canned food, rolling tables, and tall machines everywhere. It was almost impossible to navigate with the poor lighting, luckily this was my house so got the upper hand. The only way I could win was if the enemy separated to look for me. If they did I could pick them off one by one. It wasn't much of a plan considering I was unarmed and there were titans involved but it was something. I was worried about my mom but this was about the best thing I could do to help her.

I ran around trying to find the best spot to launch an ambush. The best I could find was on top of a machine, much less than ideal but it worked. It took a while to get up but once I got up there but waiting was the hardest part of all was waiting. My heart was pounding and I couldn't stop shaking. I tried to make less sound by holding my breath but I didn't work. I tried to calm myself down with the few happy memories from my childhood. I thought back to when me and my sister were playing at the beach, the mid-night conversations with Grover. All the good things of my life never lasted. I was wondering if I would be joining them soon or not, and what they would say if I let mom die.

Just then two people came around the corner.

**Third Person POV**

Lalantos walked around the kitchen angrily, occasionally swearing and punching something. The four monsters stood absolutely still trying to avoid any attention. Promethus was leaning up against the wall checking his watch and shaking his head.

"Okay listen up" Lalantos said "The boy has the home field advantage right now. So we will have to split up and search for him." Some grimaced, but everyone nodded in the end.

"Three teams and one guard should do, right" Promethus said while reading a book he just picked up.

"I will go by myself. One of you monsters will have to go with Promethus" she finished with distaste. Then she turned around and ran into the machinery room. Two monsters paired up and quickly followed. The remaining monster stood quietly eyeing the titan. Promethus finally put down his book and walked out the door with the monster quick on his heels.

"Nice move kid" he said to himself, before his clothes turned into celestial bronze armor and a large wickedly sharp spear and shield with pictures of peoples death formed in his hands.

"Let's move soldier" he said to the monster, and then they ran around the corner.

**Percy's POV**

I saw two people come around the corner. My muscles tensed and I narrowed my eyes trying to calculate their distance. I was planning to brain anyone who was unlucky enough to come by. I had counted on the fact that this place was to big to scout out together, I was hoping that they would be traveling alone but there was no turning back now. Then one of the two spoke as they came closer.

"You sure he's around here?" I couldn't tell which one spoke but his voice was rough. Then an equally rough voice answered.

"Yeah. This isn't an ordinary halfblood, this one is extra powerful". Damn monsters, I thought, they sniffed me out. Only now they were almost in my range. One monster looked my way, so I tried to blend in with the shadows. He averted his eyes for a second to talk to his friend.

"He should be around here somewh-"he never got to finish. I jumped off the machine and came down hard. I grabbed his head and used the momentum of the fall to slam his head into the near rolling table. My vision blurred but I turned around just in time for a kick to send me flying into a stacked pile of canned food. I coughed up some blood because of the pain. My stomach was aching I rolled over holding myself with my left arm. I saw a faint light between all the chaos. I grabbed at the light, and came back with a beautiful bronze ring. The glowing started getting stronger until three small holographic images circled above my hand.

The monster checked his friends pulse and then grabbed his sword. Enraged he let out a terrible roar.

"How dare you" he said probably putting all his murderous intent behind his glare. He charged strait at me and raised his sword. I waited last minute to roll to the side. His sword sunk into the floor, so I stood and looked at the ring. My vision came back into focus and I saw what the holograms were. They were weapons: one was a long sword, probably three feet long. The second was a spear, I couldn't make out to much detail but it looked insanely sharp. The third hologram was actually two criss-crossed short swords. I had no idea how to use the ring and didn't know where it came from, but just then the monster turned around and swung his sword. I jumped back just in time but then he charged again. I closed my eyes, _I need a weapon_, I prayed to the ring. Then the ring became heavier in my hand, I opened my eyes and saw a three foot long sword in my hand.

"Wow" I whispered. The monster stopped for a moment and looked at me with even more hatred. The sword was a glowing bronze, was insanely sharp and had a Greek inscription carved on the blade. Anaklusmos, Riptide I translated, it was perfectly balanced. I swung at the monster and he met my sword with his. Sparks illuminated the room for a split second. I turned and struck at his face. He deflected again but was slowing down. I kept pushing harder; using moves I didn't remember learning. Then his sword hit my hilt, I knew it was a rare possibility, so I twisted my sword and sent his weapon flying across the room. He stumble back in disbelief, I took the opportunity and jumped onto the rolling table. I ran over and jumped down using the extra momentum to strengthen my slice. I cut strait through his armor making more sparks illuminated the room. He disintegrated slowly, his body turning to ash and blowing away even though there was no wind. The clatter of his armor and sword echoed into the darkness. His partner shifted position and moaned, reminding me he was there. I walked over and stared down at him and then his eyes opened slightly. He looked me up and down, at my sword, and then at the armor behind me.

"Do it" he croaked. He closed his eyes acknowledging his loss. I raised my sword. My breathing got heavier and my stomach started feeling cold and uneasy. I had the urge to actually do it but ended up voting against it. I knew what was right and killing someone in cold blood like that would make me just as bad as them. Sure he was a monster but I still couldn't kill like that.

"Next time" I promised. Then stomped on his face and broke his nose. At first I thought I snapped his neck but he didn't disintegrate so I left the unconscious monster and ran off around the corner knowing that later on I would have to become colder.

I had gleaming bronze sword in my hand, dried blood all over my body, and a broken wrist but I was feeling a sense of duty stronger than anything before.

"I'm coming mom" I whispered.


	3. I Lose My Life

**Percy's POV**

"She has to be I muttered to myself" A titan yes they were after me and my mom. But why? Are we the last humans, no, impossible. Something was wrong and I was going to get to the bottom of it.

I wish I could say I was feeling strong and brave, but I was not. Emphasis on the not. I was super scared, considering that a national level force composed of titans, emphasis on titans, decided to put me in their black book should be enough to drive anyone crazy. Then I suddenly get my hands on a magical ring/sword and take out two elite monsters and I actually managed to take them out. Well, let's say my luck would still drop to explosively low levels I just didn't know it yet.

It started with me getting lost, and the fact that the machinery room reeked gas wasn't helping me concentrate. My objective was the kitchen but I ended up just about everywhere but. After a bit of pointless wandering, fate tipped its hand and gave me a glimpse of what was in store for me. My heart never beat faster, because standing in front of me was the timeless face I was beginning to hate. The female titaness who had, dark black hair, dark eyes, slender body, and serious dark intentions. There is no better way to say this: I ran into her. Seriously, like I t-boned her at full speed.

I started with me hearing something knock over from an aisle behind me somewhere, so I ran. Don't mock me because you would have done the same thing. She probably thought it was me and I thought it could be her. She must have been pretty confident in her guessing skills, because someone who comes around a corner at that speed probably didn't even take other possibilities into consideration. I didn't even have time to brace myself and consequently I lost the grip to my sword. When we hit my mind came up with a million thoughts starting with: "Titan alert!" to stuff like "Sorry. Are you okay?"

We both tumbled past each other; she fell onto the floor while I hit my head on the side of a large metal machine. The bang echoed through the whole building and giving me double vision. The titaness looked confused at first but then her eyes turned murderous, the norm. It was absolutely creepy. Her eyes started glowing white, the room temperature dropped 5 degrees, my heart was beating at maximum speed, my throat dried. The blood in my mouth turned extra salty and then it hit me that my short, pitiful life was going to end. Probably with my mom's, but I was at least going down fighting. I formed a plan in my head and waited for her to make the first move.

"Turn yourself in kid. Who knows Kronos could be in a good mood." she reasoned

"And if he's not" I countered, "torture. Right?" she gave me a evil smile, that confirmed my assumption.

"You know what?" I taunted, "You already made this personal by coming to may home, I'm not going anywhere with you guy you big idiot! So screw you and Kronos!"

That was enough to set her off, she charged two silver words dangling at either side of her. It was a live or die situation right now. My mom's life was resting on me and my plan wasn't guaranteed to work. For starters she was planning to engage in close combat but I wasn't, make any sense?. I ran up to my sword and scooped it up, while at the same moment she jumped up of the side off a rolling table swords above her head and that when I did it.

I prayed to the ring/sword "spear!" The sword reacted: it grew into a spear, a heavy glowing bronze spear. I held my breath and then trusted it out in front of me just as she impaled herself into it. She screamed in agony and fell to her knees. The spear ran strait through her stomach, golden blood flushing from the wound, and beads of sweat running down her face. My stomach did a flip and I felt like throwing up, but strangely my mind was clear as day. I had to move forward, to my mom.

The titaness cocked her head towards me just as I hit her full force with a punch so strong, I am certain something cracked. She fell back spear still in her stomach. She let out another scream as I tore the spear from her body. The spear shrunk into a small piece of metal that ran across my palm and snaked around my ring finger. More grime accumulated around my face, not to mention all the golden blood on my jeans. My shirt now stuck to my back and beads of sweat dropped from my chin, but the titaness was worse. She lay on her side in a pool of her own golden blood looking up at me exhausted, gapping for air. I towered over looking down on her slowly regaining my breath. For a moment it was only the two of us staring at each other with the sound of our breath ringing out into the silence. Me the powerful and her the powerless, but that was about to change.

I saw a light turn on in the distance. "Mom" I thought and took off after the light. I rounder a corner of machinery mixed with piles of canned food and there it was the light in form of a doorway. The light was so blinding I had to hold my hand in front of my face. I started to walk after it. My walk sped up then it turned into a jog then a full out sprint. I came out into an open space in that ran across the wall of the in front of the kitchen.

"Mom!" I bellowed, "MOM! Are you in there? My hand was inch from the doorway when I got smashed from the side. All the bones running up from my right led to my right shoulder must have been smashed, broken, whatever you want to call it, because at that moment I was hit by a charging bull. I flew across the room spewing blood from my mouth. I crashed into a stack of cans that must have broken even more of my bones. The pain was just too much; my vision was fading to black. I turned my head and saw the bull; it was brown and larger than normal. The reason didn't hear it was because it was floating and at that moment it was also shape shifting.

A cold laugh shook the room as the bulls hair fell off and it turned into a man.

"So predictable, chuckle, must give it to you that this battle was very well played on your part, but I guess it ends here young demi-god." He flicked his had and a monster carrying a bow and arrow came out of the shadows. He aimed his weapon at me this time the arrow was gold. I could do nothing. My body wouldn't move, my head was throbbing, a tear slid down my cheek. I had failed my mom and was going to die. Just then things got crazy.

"End for you, demon!" Someone bellowed. The monster raised his bow towards the door and there in the light was my mom. Holding, matches?

"Well look at this" the male titan started, "looks like-" he never got to finish because my mom started ranting.

"Percy this world is messed up! Things never really went our way but even in darkness you saw light. That's why I know its going to be you who can do it." I was totally confused, nothing she said made sense and the fact that she was crying made me feel sort of guilty. "Percy!" she continued, "Always know I loved you! Don't give up, ever! And don't die, please" she collapsed and all I could do was gape at my mom.

"Kill her" the titan said and the monster raised his arrow. I wanted to yell but I couldn't, I wanted to hurt the monster, but I couldn't. It was going to happen. That's when my mom raised her head form hands. There were no longer tears in her eyes only, determination. It all clicked for me a few moments to late, one word could make it all too clear "gas". I looked at my mom and saw her mouth the word "goodbye" then she lit a match.

The explosion was huge, a monstrosity of an explosion. The machines in the building must have had some explosive chemicals in them. The last thing I remember was rising with the flames, a smoking body (no pun intended), with tears in my eyes falling towards the ocean. The pain was now emotional. The run down cements canning factory gone home was no more. Just like life as I knew it, just like my mom, just like hope,


	4. New Eye's

Percy's POV

"Couz, wake up" a deep gruff voice said. Someone nudged me, "come on we don't have that much time"

"Come on he is just as useless as his father" this time a female voice said. "No, it has to be him" the gruff voice retorted, "look he's waking up".

I sat up without opening my eyes, strangely my body felt fine. Weightless for that matter, the sensation was surreal. I opened my eyes to see two blurry images standing before me.

"Mom?" I asked fearing the worst.

"Idiot" the women cursed.

"Not your mom, your cousin" the gruff voice said, "I'm Hephaestus and this is my sister Athena"

"Interesting names" I pointed out while rubbing my eyes. When I was done my eyes came into focus and I saw a weird couple. The man's face was brutal and grimy, his hair was a mess and his body was uneven; almost cripple. He had scars all over his arms and his hands were super dirty and thick. He wore a dirty jumpsuit and had an uncombed beard that was full of little flames and it sparked every once in a while. Hideous would be the best way to describe him. The woman on the other hand was beautiful. She had beautiful grey stormy eyes and gorgeous light brown curly hair. She had a deep tan and was wearing full battle armor and Greek from the looks of it. The only thing they had in common was that their faces seemed timeless. They were different from the looks of it and also people I had never met.

"Got any last names?" I asked.

"No just those" they responded at the same time. What a waste of time, I thought. They were lying and trying to joke around with me. The truth was that I wasn't in the mood.

"Sorry, but my family is dead" I said swallowing the bitter feeling with my own doubts about it.

"That's offensive, spawn" the women hissed, trying to insult me.

"Relax Athena he doesn't know anything yet" the man reasoned

"I'll back you up there he does seem to be an idiot" Athena agreed.

"Hey!" I said making both of them turn to me, "What's your problem and what do you want?" There was a short pause followed by tension in the air. Hephaestus looked down and started fiddling with his fingers, Athena turned all business looking me square in the eyes.

"We have a proposal" Athena said

"I see" I said still not believing a word from their mouths.

"You see, you're the first one too go unnoticed" Athena said

"First what?" I interrupted

"Why, spawn of one of the three el-", Athena started but was interrupted again.

"In good time kid" Hephaestus said looking up,

"You see you are special and very capable, but still at a disadvantage" I was going ask something but Athena hushed me, and Hephaestus continued "We want to give you the sight" he said holding up a pair of bloodshot eyeballs in a plastic bag.

"Gross!" I exclaimed.

"They are mechanical eyes, and will allow you to see a titan in his true form along with its many other capabilities" Hephaestus finished

"We've never done this for anyone before, so be grateful" Athena snobbishly added, "It also has information on battle stuff, skills so on-" I must have looked confused because she got frustrated and snapped at me.

"Do you follow, spawn? We don't have much time here." I let the question hang in the air and then answered.

"Um… You lost me right about when you said you weren't my mom" I admitted and Athena turned dark red. I swear, if possible she would have been breathing fire and puffing steam.

"You see, You see!" she said throwing her arm up, "He's and idiot" she said looking at the man. He raised his hand and she fell quiet, then he started "We are offering you a proposal-"

"Okay, okay" I interrupted " First off let me say… that I don't trust you" Athena got even madder. Her eyes started to glow threateningly, while Hephaestus just gave me a blank stupid look. Athena was going to say something but I held my hand in her face and went on before she could, "Second of all I don't believe you" their reactions were the same.

"Third off" I said, "I believe I have already been noticed. Last I can remember armed forces invaded my house and killed the last of my family" This made them stop. They looked at each other and then Athena spoke.

"I'm sorry spawn, I really am. But you being a powerful spawn can help us" that was a weird moment for me. Aside from her name I knew nothing about them, plus the women kept insulting me, then she just turned sympathetic, and the fact that she kept calling me "spawn". It gave her words a bitter-sweet sensation. I sighed and gave in to the strangers.

"How can I, help you?" I asked. They both looked at each other and smiled.

"You must accept our gift" Hephaestus said looking dead serious.

"And what are the so called conditions?" I asked

"You must help us" Hephaestus replied and then Athena hit him on the back of his head.

"Are you testing my patience?" I said threateningly.

"You must find two people for us in other words a child of mine and a child of his. Their names are James Law and Leo Valdez respectively." I let that hang trying to decide.

"The eyes look just like the ones you have now" Hephaestus added innocently. I took the time to look around me and saw nothing but whiteness. I was in some sort of room but I couldn't tell its size. My mind drifted to my mom and her word echoed in my head "I know its going to be you who can do it". If this was going to give me power I was taking it, even if it was fake I had nothing to lose.

"Okay. I accept" I said defiantly. They both gave each other evil grins that made me uneasy.

"This might hurt a bit cuz" Hephaestus said grinning. Just then my vision faded to white and my eyes got hotter. Soon the pain was unbearable I remember yelling then being shaken.

"It's okay. It's okay. Your with me now, your safe." A soft female voice tried to comfort me. My eyes were closed so I couldn't see anything but I felt something at my lips.

"Here this should help sooth the pain" I opened my mouth and she slipped something into my mouth. It was sweet and soft but I couldn't put a name on it. I felt a few of my ribs slip back into place and the pain in my eyes died down to a splitting headache.

"Don't worry the extraction team is on its way" she said. I didn't nod or try to assure her at all. I wasn't going to but I decided to open my eye just a slight crack to get a glimpse of my savior. She was beautiful. Seriously she was drop dead beautiful, blonde hair curled at the tips like a princes, perfect tan and stormy grey eyes, and hot body. She was looking out the window shade upon the street, obviously on guard and was wearing full bronze armor which also appeared to be Greek. She had a bow and quiver full of arrows slung over her shoulders as well as a sheathed sword strapped to her hip. I tried to sit up but yelped in pain. She turned towards me quickly and forced me back down.

"Relax. Its okay, your safe." She said again. I looked strait into her eyes.

"No" was all I managed before blacking out. I lost my mom. It was definitely not okay, and I was definitely not safe.

Leo Valdez POV

The view was really was beautiful sitting on a ledge. Ledge of a SKY SCRAPER! Yeah baby. Idiot harpies thinking they stood a chance against me. Messing up my 14th birthday. Insane. Monsters sure are getting bold these day's. Well, here I am enjoying my birthday alone on one of the terraces of Sear's tower Chicago, Illinois. Below me the busy city flashes and honks at me screaming "I am here", but I could care less. Today is about me, the day I was born "the day I was cursed, with my life and my abilities". The people below my feet simply scurry from point a to b stealing glances at some of the monsters patrolling the streets, scared out of their minds. Aside from my birthday its also the anniversary of my moms death. It has been five years exactly since she's been dead and also five years of solitude. Five years of pain and more

Importantly five years of running. Something I have learnt; is that places harbor memories and memories bring pain. That's why I change. It's been to long since I left Chicago its time to change city so I thing I'll be going to…Toronto. I don't belong anywhere and this is how I live, lived and probably will continue to live like this… until my luck runs out.

Third Person POV

"Arghhh" The sound of a cracking whip sliced trough the room. In the room there were three figures: one boy, one woman and one dracaena. .

"Had enough demi-god" the woman harassed. She was short, thin and had black hair and wore a long elegant dress with an icy crystal necklace that illuminated the room. Her name was Khione goddess of snow, also goddess of the north winds. She signaled to the dracaena that was wearing rusty steal armor and was holding a bloody whip. The dracaena struck the boy once again. His back was scared and his wounds spewed tears of blood. Though his body cried in pain he did not, he knelt their embracing it: through forced breaths, he sweated off his agony making sure to show no emotion. He knelt in the middle of a dirty cement cell wearing nothing but black torn rags. The cell was frosted in the corners, dirty on the floor and the only light came from a small barred window high up on the wall. The room was square and large. It had a circular ring in the center where the one prisoner was shackled in large heavy chains. He was stuck kneeling on his bloody knees completely immobilized… his name was Nico di Angelo… his crime: existing.

"What did you think you could accomplish defecting from us?" Khione laughed and then continued, "An officer like you should know it's useless. Your sister would be disappointed."

"SHUT UP! Don't talk about my sister, pant" Nico screamed.

"Hit a raw nerve did I?" Khione pushed

"When I get out of these chains I'll kill you" Nico assured. Khione signaled to the dracaena who furiously began whipping Nico.

"Oh dear Nico, you must realize that if ever you were to get out of these shackles, it will be when we are removing your corpse" she finished with a wink and then left the room. The dracaena as if on q began mercilessly whipping Nico again.

Percy' POV

I passed out two more times after I got an eye transplant from some weird couple and met some girl who made it a hobby to save random guys like me. I woke up after that and remember being picked up. Then I heard the girl's voice talking to someone, though I only made out part of it I am pretty sure it was about me. Her voice was occasionally drowns by the sound of my own breath in my head.

"There was this huge explosion-" the girl explained but then I lost her to the sound of my lungs, next I heard, "-showed up on the shore wounded-"still the girl's voice but I lost her again. Then I heard a deep voice,

"Are you sure he's a demigod?" There it was again that word "demigod" it didn't make sense to me, it meant nothing to me. Surely they were talking about someone else, then the girl answered

"Yes." Losing conscience is really interesting because you can always tell exactly when you do, unlike when you fall asleep which is unpredictable. Right then I passed out. The second time I woke up things were different.

When I woke up my head was throbbing and my throat was dry. All that had happened to me was too much for me. I had been chased, mentally abused, I watched my mom die, got an eye transplant, was saved and then very possibly kidnapped. I was not going to stay here very long, whatever the cost I was getting out. The least I could do was honor my moms last request, and for all I knew these so called saviors could have just saved me so they could subject me to a life of pain. Maybe they even worked for the titans. Right then I was sure of nothing so I started to move my fingers with my eyes still closed just to make sure they worked. I finished my right hand, and was about to start on my left, when the door to my room opened. I stopped dead cold and started listening to the steps coming my way.

I opened my eyes just a crack and got a glimpse of the wall in front of me. I quickly closed my eyes and started to analyze the metal photo I had just taken. The wall wasn't too far in front of me so the room must have been small. The walls were a marble like white and reflected some light, and there was an average size window slightly to my right. I couldn't make out what was past the window though that was the least of my concerns. I felt for my ring and was relieved to find on my finger, all I could do was lie in wait and prepare for the worst. The sound of their steps and I could feel them looking down on me. Then the same girl that had found me spoke,

"It was weird, because I was walking along the shore of the beach coming back from my scouting mission when there was this hu~~ge explosion. Next thing I knew there was this splash a good way into the water. At first I thought it was a monster but then I saw him just floating their. Obviously, I dove in and got him out. But Chiron it was terrible! His clothes were shredded and burnt but that's the least of it" her voice was showing deep concern and it was making me grateful.

"His fingers were almost cut off, his left ankle was fractured, and his right arm was broken in three places, and on the right side of his body he had 8 broken ribs"

"My gosh" the so called Chiron said in exasperation but the girl wasn't done,

"His right shoulder was dislocated, he had a~~ tone of internal bleeding and was cut in hundreds of places. I'm telling you it's a miracle he survived. It took 12 to cure him. So much happened in the short time you left, it unbelievable." She finished and the report of my condition hung in the air.

"You did well Annabeth. Meanwhile we must figure out what to do with him." Uh-oh. This Chiron guy was making me uneasy. He continued talking and making me nervous,

"We have to take precautions, because if he is with them" as Chiron spoke he said the word "them" with such hatred it shocked me. Then he continued, "we will have to deal with him."

"Deal with him how?" the girl Annabeth asked nervously.

"We have brought him within our borders so he knows our location. That's information that can't fall into the wrong hands." Chiron said defiantly. By now my stomach was doing summersaults, for all I knew I could be with "them" and not know it. Plus the way they said "deal" to me meant death. Thing were already going south when I had just lived through a dire situation.

"But he was so-"the girl started.

"Annabeth" Chiron said sympathetically, "You being you are very trusting and under suspicious-"

"Are you calling me naïve?" Annabeth said accusingly, sounding hurt.

"Far from dear girl" Chiron assured, "it's just that the enemy is tricky and devious, and they are all too quick to exploit qualities like that. I've seen all too many fall to their tricks." Chiron finished with a sigh. This conversation was driving me insane and to worsen thing up tension grew in the air since it took a few moments before Annabeth spoke up,

"I understand. How should we deal with him-" That was it, I could no longer stay still. I rolled off the bed and jumped up, instantly my side started to burn intensely. Both Annabeth and Chiron jumped back. Well actually just Annabeth jumped, Chiron was in a wheel chair but he backed up none the less. Annabeth looked like she had some words stuck in her mouth, but I was long gone. I had already run past her, then jumped up bracing myself with my arms: forming an x. I also raised my knees in front of me as I sail through the air and out the window.

I know, I know, that was stupid but don't judge me. I had bumped my head for one, and certain people were arranging my execution. That's enough to make a good percentage of the world's population uncomfortable… unless you don't understand them, which is different. Resuming, to me good luck had already become a foreign concept and as it turned out the window I had just jumped out of was on the second story. As I fell I used my momentum to do something like a summersault, when it connected with the ground it shot me forward in a full out sprint. Some glass had stuck to my arms and I know realized that I wasn't wearing the clothes that I had the other day. I was wearing an orange t-shirt and some army pants over a tone of bandages. They covered every inch of my arms as well as my hands and I could feel them under my clothes as well. I only got a few steps away from the house when someone whacked me square in the face full force. It knocked me right off my feet and consequently gave me double vision.

My nose was hurting so much it was hard to stay focused, I managed to roll away just as someone's foot impaled itself right where my chest had been. I rose to my feet and raised my arm in the basic brawling manner. It was getting really hard to stand up and I felt that soon I would fall over, not only that but out of the shadows and buildings 40 or 50 people gathered around. I can't be sure because my vision was messed up by the hit I had just taken. I felt a warm liquid dribble down onto my mouth, which I'm pretty sure was blood. I looked around me and identified my attackers. There were two identical girls wearing blood red armor and they both had their swords drawn. Some unfamiliar person came out of the crowd and was yelling franticly.

"Don't move around, your wounds will open! Your wounds will open!" He came closer and I turned towards him taking a step back. He stopped and seemed to notice my dilemma, he gave me a sad sympathetic look and joined the others who watched me. Down through the crowd two people pushed their way through.

"Stop, it my fault everybody!" it was Annabeth

"Clarise stand down" Chiron ordered as he came into view. The girl in red armor reluctantly sheathed her sword now my vision was coming back into focus and I could see clearly. Unfortunately for me my body was reaching its limit; I lost balance and fell onto one knee. I kept one hand on the floor for balance as I rubbed my nose with the other. When I looked up I saw Annabeth coming towards me. My heart was racing 300 miles an hour. These people were going to kill me!

Annabeth came over and put her arm on my shoulder and tried to help me up, but I shook her off. I backed up breathing heavily and was about to put the last of my strength in to a sprint when I felt a jolt of electricity sting my arm. I turned just in time to see a girl wearing punk clothes, who had straight black hair and sky blue eyes. After the shock I passed out to Chiron's voice.

"Calm down boy."


	5. Chains, A Scale, And Fire

Percy's POV

After my pitiful attempt of an escape I began giving into despair. My body was in shambles, I was clearly outnumbered by an unknown enemy and my life had been left to luck again; and if you think back a bit you'll realize that luck doesn't like me. I blacked out after I was electrocuted, but soon after someone shook me back to reality.

"Wake up!" someone said which was followed by more shaking. I slowly opened my eyes, and reached up to rub my head but quickly found out that my hands were immobile. Oh no not this, I thought. Yes this, I was now chained to certain parts of the floor. Summarizing, I was screwed. There were chains around my chest tying me to the wall behind me and my hands as well as feet were shackled directly to the floor putting me in a sitting position. Just as I began to think about how unlucky I was, my nose started inching but I couldn't reach it, I crinkled my nose and looked around the room, there were exactly ten people in total, all of them staring at me. The person who woke me up was the same person who electrocuted me, but the one who spoke up first was Chiron.

"Who are you, child." He asked. I looked around the room and identified a few people. There in the room was a blonde girl aside from Annabeth who was wearing perfect makeup, and looked deeply concerned with my situation. She was really cute, but I didn't trust her. Next to her was a tall dark African American looking guy, he was ripped and was mildly handsome. He had his poker face on; 100 percent business. Next too him were almost identical twins, the only difference was the length of their hair. They not so discreetly poked each other while keeping their eyes on me. I could go on, but the only familiar faces were of the girl who shocked me and then woke me up, the girl who had attacked me by the name of Clarise, Chiron, and Annabeth. Annabeth on the other hand wouldn't even look at me. I wanted to give a look of hatred, since it was because of her I was in this mess.

"Percy Jackson." I replied looking Chiron strait in the eyes trying to intimidate him. I didn't work.

"Whose son are you?" he asked.

"Why? It's none of your business." I answered. This was weird; in all the books I had read no one ever started an interrogation with 'Whose son are you '. Clarise snickered and Chiron shared a look with Annabeth.

"What were you doing in New York?" Clarise asked, "Scouting. Preparing-"

"Living" I corrected, "Its where I live… well actually I don't think I'm going to stay there any longer." Chiron and some others gave me quizzical looks as I thought aloud.

"Yeah right! No one can survive their without magical protection… unless you're with the titans." The girl with dark hair accused. Then it clicked for me, these people thought I was working for the titans. I realized that they would probably not believe anything I said. I was in a bad situation; a titan spy would deny working for them and on the other hand I would also deny working for them since I didn't.

"It's the truth." I said half-heartedly.

"What do you guy's want with me?" I asked, "I was just minding my own business and then you guy's come along."

"So, your business is causing explosions?" Annabeth asked, "You would have died if I hadn't been there. You actually should have died back there but you didn't so atleast give us a thank you." She looked at me as if I was an ungrateful child. Too bad, I didn't feel like following procedure so I casually ignored her. She clenched her teeth and move forward, but the other blonde girl with perfect make up put a hand on her shoulder and held her back. After a few moments Chiron spoke,

"We will let you go, but only if you are worthy." He said. There was a pause so probably everyone was wondering the same thing: was I? I didn't know either. To some of them I was already guilty and this could all be staged to get me to fess up. They could be the ones that were working for the titans. I wasn't going to tell them my story for that reason and because it was a wound that was too fresh. It was too emotional for me and I owed nothing to them, aside from my life.

"so, you think I work for the titans?" I asked feeling hurt. Before the incident with my mom I couldn't bring myself to mortally wound someone, but now all I wanted to do was get revenge on the titans.

"It's a possibility" Chiron said. "Unless you tell us your story we won't know." There was a short silence and I could feel everyone's anticipation.

"Then, screw you." I said. I closed my eyes and put the back of my head against the wall behind me and smiled to myself.

"What do you mean 'screw you' you bast-!" Annabeth fumed but the blonde girl next to her gave her a mix of head lock and a bear hug. The girl clamped her hands over Annabeth's mouth and held her back. Some people in the room laughed, others sighed, and some just glared.

"Percy Jackson until you decide to talk you will be subjected to the starvation hell." Chiron said, "We had very high hopes for young demigod-" The last word had an effect on me. It gave me flash back to when the man/bull/titan had nearly killed me. Right now the word only brought me bad memories, and it actually gave me a mental blow.

"D-don't call me that" I interrupted Chiron. Everyone in the room gave me confused looks, even the ones that had been glaring at me the whole time. Everyone kept accusing me of being something I wasn't and no one gave me a slight explanation of what was going on. My mind was beginning to tier of being confused and helpless. I breathed hard and closed my eyes even tighter, trying to shut out the terrible reality.

To me this place was just about to become my starvation hell since I wasn't fessing up to any inexistent crimes they accused me of. I wasn't going to give in to anyone, plus I had a plan.

Part one of my plan was… the silent treatment. Yeah, I know it's not too flashy or anything to be expected but I needed to be alone for my plan to work and they would probably get bored eventually and leave, right? Wrong.

One person in particular didn't tire of waiting. Most of them left to do whatever, after they realized it was useless to bother me. Chiron was one of the last to leave, and when he went he was shaking his head in disappointment. Remaining in the room was the chick captured me and the chick that kept electrocuting me. Not the combination of choice. I eyed each of them, staying mute, waiting for them to make the first move.

"Come on Annabeth, he'll give in eventually." The girl with dark hair said as she tried to pull Annabeth towards the door.

"You go ahead I'll be right with you" Annabeth said while looking at me.

"Suit yourself." The other girl said and left through the door while raising her hands in defeat. Now it was just me and her, alone, looking at each other. I broke the silence first.

"Thank you for all of this, really." I said sarcastically and Annabeth turned bright red and instantly became defensive.

"For what! Saving your life, maybe!" she said in disbelief.

"No. I was thinking more about when your friend made air the only food on my menu!" I retorted. It took her a second but she came up with something.

"It's not my fault you forgot how to talk back there! Plus I saved you!" she said sitting down right in front of me.

"Well Wise Girl, what did you do after that…huh?... I don't know, IMPRISON ME?" I said, losing my breath.

We looked into each other angrily, staring off our frustration.

"Why are you so mad anyway? Is it because you didn't get a medal yet?" I asked

"No!" she said sounding hurt, "It's just, things aren't making sense"

"Tell me about it." I agreed. As I looked into her eyes I made an important connection. Her eyes, they were the clue. Even her temper, it was just like that women in my dream. It was so obvious, I would have slapped myself on the head but I could move my arms.

"Like how did you survive that explosion? By the looks of it you were in it. And what hap-" she started but I accidentally blurted out without thinking,

"You're Athena's daughter!" the complexity of my discovery made me proud and I uncontrollably started grinning. She looked smaller than the lady in my dream, maybe a bit to old for a daughter but the words were out and I was sure of it. Then again, it was only a dream but Annabeth confirmed my educated guess.

"How do you know that?" Annabeth said scared. She backed up and reached for a knife that was at her side. Uh-oh, I stopped grinning.

"Um, I-I, I-Its…" I was barely able to speak and then she unsheathed her knife,

"I met her!" I blurted out. This wasn't going my way. Seriously, one wrong statement and I was already at knife point.

"That's impossible; she's in prison right now." Annabeth stated quickly pushing me for answers I didn't have and on top of that what she said confused me even more.

"But I did." I claimed, "Anyway I'm kind of tired so-"

"Tell me what you know about my mother!" Annabeth pushed.

"Nothing!" I said in exasperation, "She has your eyes and explosive temper, but that's all." I finished in defeat. Annabeth stopped for a moment blushing slightly.

"Thank you… wait, explosive WHAT!" I had said something wrong again. Annabeth reached out at me but then pulled back grabbing at the air in front of my face. Close, I thought. A good few minutes passed in awkward silence. She sat there in front of me looking directly at me as I look at the floor, the wall, anywhere but her storming grey eyes. The awkward silence gave me enough time to take in the details of my surroundings. I was in another marble while room and high up in the corner of one of the walls there was a small window where light came in through. There was a door but it lead into some kind of hallway so it was pretty dark. The only contrast in this room; were the chains, which were black. I was chained to a wall and faced the door. There was a slight echo and the temperature was only mildly warm and sitting right in front of me was a really cute girl that possibly wanted to stab me.

"Why don't you leave" I told Annabeth.

"Or why don't you tell me what your hiding" she retorted, "Don't worry. If you're our enemy we won't execute you."

"But you'll give me a life sentence" I concluded. Annabeth just shrugged like it was no big deal. I turned my head.

"Just leave" I sighed.

"Just tell me" Annabeth insisted. Dang, she's annoying, I thought. Annabeth was done playing. Looking at her face I could tell she was serious and this girl was going to get her way. I didn't know what to make of her, she was nice to me then mean. Lose cannon is the best way to describe her, but the again she was concerned about me. She had saved my life and I could tell that me being in these shackles was not her choice. From my experience so far; none of my enemies were nearly as nice as her. I don't know why I did it, maybe it was because I was tiered of not trusting, or maybe it was because she was looking really innocent and cute.

"Fine" I said after a while. I told her everything; I told her about the deaths, I told her about all the pain and I told her about the explosion. When I got to talking about my mom I was already crying. I made some things extremely vague: like I told her about who I met in my dream but I didn't tell her what they did to me. Also I didn't tell about the two titans who followed the elite force of monsters. When I finished she said nothing she just gave me a look of pity, and then… she left. Just like that, gone. I rested my head up against the wall. With a sigh I tried to gain control of my newly welled up emotions, closed my eyes and set off on a quest to reach dream land.

I was barely conscious and almost asleep when a few people came back through the door. Some one walked right up to me and stuck something in my cuffs. That sent a jolt through my body. I opened my eyes quickly and saw Annabeth, Chiron, and the girl that kept electrocuting me. I watched silently as the girl who electrocuted me undid both the cuffs on my arms, and the chains around my chest. My mind was on over drive; I was happy but confused at the same time, relived but still worried. This was a little bit random even for me. I rubbed my wrists and looked up to see Annabeth in a train of thought. Chiron looked relieved, while the girl who kept electrocuting looked like she couldn't believe how lucky I was.

We all left my cell and I finally got a good look out side. It was breathtaking. There were luscious green hill, the sort I had never seen in my life, and buildings of all shapes and sizes. It was wonderful to seen all that color. It was proof that there was still life in this doomed world. In a field ahead of my there was a varied collection of buildings built in the shape on omega; the last letter of the Greek alphabet. There were about 30 buildings in total, all of which were considerably large. One was black, many where white, one grey, there were so many variation. Behind the buildings I could see a large lake and behind the lake there was a forest. The forest hugged the corners of the lake and stretched out in directions father than I could see.

Then something funny happened. I didn't hurt or anything, but at the moment I was looking at the forest my eyes just zoomed in. The forest went from looking really far away to really close, and when it zoomed in I saw something scurrying in the forest.

"What's that?" I exclaimed. Everyone stopped in surprise and looked towards where I was pointing.

"What's what? There's nothing there." The girl with dark hair said annoyed. I was going try again when I remembered my dream with the two strangers. They said they gave me the sight, so this was probably it. I mentally asked my eyes to go back too normal and luckily they did. Adrenaline raced through my veins; even by my standards this wasn't normal and that's saying something. I bit back my tongue so I wouldn't look like a freak.

"Let's go, it almost dinner" Annabeth said. All three of them turned up hill and started walking. I had a very vague guess of what happened and why I was free, but I decided to follow them since Annabeth did say the word dinner. I wanted to thank Annabeth because I knew it was only because of her that I was out of that mess. When we reached our destination I was blown away. There were so many people hundreds; 321 to be exact. It was weird, I think it was my new eyes, after a few seconds the number slipped into my mind and I was sure of it. It was awesome. In front of me was a pavilion, it had numerous long tables, tones of people, a fire burning in the distance and most noticeably it had food. Yes, finally! Something noticeable among the crowd was that a good percentage of them were not human. Names kept slipping into my mind when I couldn't identify them; dryad, aurora and of course satyr. Just like my bro Grover, there were tones and tones of satyrs.

"Not very practical" I said to Chiron.

"Huh. Why?" Chiron asked caught off guard.

"No ceiling" I pointed out, "What if it rains?" Chiron gave me a confused look.

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean." He said. What do you mean: I'm not sure I understand what you mean, I thought to myself. Luckily the girl with dark hair came to the rescue.

"It only rains here if we want" she explained, "The weather is controlled magically." Sure, I though sarcastically. Nothing was making sense but I decided to go with it.

"Please excuse me" Chiron said, "I trust you can find your seats?" Both girls nodded to him and with that he walked away leaving me with them. Annabeth gave a look to the other girl and who then nodded back at her before leaving without a word. Now it was just me and Annabeth, and I could almost see the gears turning in her head. She was thinking of something and looked serious, so I just waited for her to make the first move. She walked of away from the pavilion motioned for me to follow. It was painful to walk away from the food but I did. She walked up behind a corner and I followed.

The moment I rounded the corner she grabbed me by the shirt and shoved me into the wall. She look me dead in the eye, I didn't know what got her so mad but she didn't intimidate me since I was about 3-4 inches taller than her. I grinned happily back at her dangerous glare.

"Listen up" she started but I decided to butt in.

"Thank you" I said and smiled at her. Her grip on my shirt loosened up and she backed up. She let go of my shirt and put both her hands on her hips.

"I bet a lot on you Jackson" she said, "now you're under my responsibility, so if you screw up it becomes partly my responsibility. Understand?" I nodded, "By the way… Your welcome" she said and brushed her hair behind her ear, "I guess you owe me one" she finished and started to walk back in the direction we had come from.

"It's not like you could have contained me" I bragged.

"Whatever" she said, "Let's go." So we did. When we got back to the pavilion lots of heads turned towards us, it made me kind of uncomfortable though Annabeth just ignored them.

"You will sit a table 11." she pointed out the table and then split and sat at a different one. I didn't understand why I had to sit at that table, because sincerely I wanted to sit with Annabeth. She had been the only person so far who had helped me and I'm pretty sure everyone else saw me as an enemy. Mutual feeling.

Anyway, the moment I sat down, on the corner of a bench, one guy came and slid in on my left. Then another guy squeezed in on my right. The former guy next to me complained,

"Hey, watch it Travis?" but the guy ignored the complaint. He put his elbow on the table and looked up at me.

"What's up new guy" he asked

"Where're you from?" the guy on my left asked.

"Got any hobbies" the guy named Travis asked, "You like Poker? Card? Sports? Books? Yes? No? Maybe? Sort of-"

"Hold up!" the guy on my left yelled to Travis, "Your confusing him, don't you see?... Here." He said and then nicely passing me a plate filled with food.

"I'm Connor, and that's Travis" he said signaling to himself as Connor and pointing to the other guy when he introduced Travis.

"Hey, I'm P-" I started.

"Percy Jackson." He finished for me, "Yeah we know." Then it hit me where I had seen him before. He was in the room during my first interrogation with Chiron.

"What we did was procedure, just so you know" Travis apologized.

"And since your new here, recognize that me and my bro over there are heads of this cabin so watch out" Connor said with a wink.

"He's kidding" Travis explained for Connor. While they talked to me I was partially busy stuffing my mouth with the best food I had ever had. I recognized one of the things though. I had read about it in one of the book's me and my mom had collected, I believe its called pizza and it was so~~ good.

"Um. Going back too your questions. Um, my hobby is swimming, I've read about poker but never played, I've never seen a deck of cards, never played sports, but I like to read" I offered. Their mouths hung open for a moment then Connor sighed.

"We are going to have to teach him a lot aren't we Travis" Connor said. Travis was freaking out.

"Never played poker! Do live under a rock?" Travis exclaimed. Then the guy sitting directly in front of me came to my rescue.

"Leave him alone guy's" he said. "You guys are annoying the heck out of him. I can tell."

"But they gave me food" I defended.

"Thank you Percis" Travis said.

"Per-cy." I corrected.

"That's what I said Percis, what did you hear?" Travis said sounding hurt. The guy in front of me just laughed and held out his hand.

"I'm Chris Rodriguez." He said and I shook his hand.

"And I'm P-" I started

"Percy Jackson, I know. I heard you tell them." Chris told me.

"Nosy" Connor pointed out but was ignored.

"So" Chris asked, "Where you from?"

"New York." I answered simply but the twin' shook their heads in disbelief.

"Dude, are you really going to keep too that story. Its okay you can tell us the truth." Connor said.

"I'm serious!" I claimed, "Me and my mom lived in a factory not too far from the ocean and we lived off the canned food inside it!"

"Suit yourself" Connor sighed.

"Come on" I implored, "It's the complete truth." There was a short pause then…

"I believe you Percis." Travis stated.

"Really?" I said hopefully.

"No" he said then let out the weirdest laugh I had ever heard. I sounded like the remix of a Billy goat bleating and an old man gasping for breath. I snickered.

"Guy's he'll tell us when he's ready." Chris stated and I snickered again.

"I'm not lying" I said.

"So Percy do you know who your parents are?" Connor asked changing the subject to a more touchy issue for me. I debated whether to tell them or nor but since they were nice company I decided to get the subject of my back.

"No, well yes, well sort of." I concluded, "My mom raised me alone for as long as I can remember, and I guess my dad thought we were too much, so he left before I was even born." I sighed and looked at my plate no longer hungry. All three boys nodded in understanding.

"Typical, I take that as a no." Travis commented.

"What?" I asked sort of offended.

"Percy, it's not that your dad didn't care about he was imprisoned." Chris said sympathetically. That's random, I thought.

"Do you know him?" I asked.

"No, not exactly, but I do know something about you." Chris stated.

"What's that" I asked him.

"You're a demigod." Connor said seriously, which was weird coming from him. There it was again that word, "demigod". Using common sense I could figure out what it meant, and I also read about them, but it still was just a word to me. The word's reappearance over my last few conscious days made it seem like some sort of evil motif. Whenever something bad happened to me someone called me a demigod. I waited a while for Travis to say "Just kidding!" and start laughing again, but even the corny Travis was serious.

"What's that." I asked hoping that there was some kind of double meaning to the word.

"Someone who is born from a mortal and a Greek god" Chris answered.

"Haha, that funny" I said in denial.

"Actually its not" Travis said in a matter-a-fact voice, "Usually it gets you killed in various bloody ways.

"Good to know" I said sarcastically

"Percy this base is protected by magical borders, monsters and normal people can't get in no matter how hard they try. The only people who can get in are us; the demigods." Chris explained. I took a couple things from his words: first that this place monster proof, which was actually good to know. Second that I was actually a demigod, unless they were lying which was always a possibility. And third that…

"You're demigods?" I asked surprised. Chris smiled as if he had accomplished something.

"Me and Travis are the children of the God of messengers, thieves, and so on.." Travis said trying(key word) to sound professional. "Lord Hermes!" he exclaimed. I'm not sure I believed them or not but I was keen to listen.

"So what about you Chris?" I asked. The twins twisted uncomfortably which made me wonder what I had said wrong, but Chris didn't mind.

"Well" he said rubbing the back of his head, "For the moment I'm undetermined. Meaning: I still haven't been claimed. Sigh, meaning: I don't know who my godly parent is."

"And usually when you get claimed it's because your godly parent has been given a short leave from his or her prison." Connor added.

"Wait. The gods are allowed to leave to have children. Why?" I asked

"Most of the god's children end up working for the titans as soldiers. Commanders, generals, admirals, you name it but the sad truth is that the more of them the titans get their hands on the harder it is for us to survive and they are getting their hands on a lot of demigods. Perce this is a war were fighting against the titans, and we're losing." Chris finished. His words struck me hard. A war? Against their own brothers and sister, how sick. Right now neither of the comedian twins were smiling they were both staring off into space, thinking.

"But why would certain demigods fight for the titans?" I asked. They're so evil, I thought.

"Perce" Chris started, "most of us here are only here because we went under the radar, few actually successfully defected. When they let the gods have children they keep tabs on their children their entire lives, they raise them to think gods are evil, and that the titans are righteous-"

"But still-" I started but was interrupted by Chris.

"It is easy to judge others but you never know what you would be like in their position. True that some demigods have turned radical, some are just scared, but others have turned on the gods to protect their loved ones. I guess what I'm trying to say we all fight for our own reasons so don't judge others until you've live his or her life, kay?"

I nodded. His argument was deep; it was obvious he had some history involved in his words. I got the feeling that this place had a big significance and that despite its beauty it was slowly dying. The air was tense and for a moment we all listened to the sounds of ongoing conversations around the pavilion. So there is a war, I thought. I had been oppressed my entire life, and knowing that some people swam against the currents gave me hope We all sat there in silence, again.

"So…" I said trying to lighten the mood, "I'm not saying I believe all this… but if I were to want, is there a way to find out who my godly parent is? Without having to wait for him to claim me, that is?"

"Sure" Travis answered, "Someone will probably be assigned to help you figure that out tomorrow."

"They'll take a look at your skills and try and relate it to a god" Connor added, "It's not always possible but they can usually boil it down to two or three gods/goddesses in which one will turn out to be your actual godly parent."

"Cool" I said, subconsciously warming up to the idea.

"By the way" I added, "Who is Annabeth's godly parent?"

"The goddess of wisdom and battle, Athena" Travis answered casually. When he said that, I nearly bit my tongue off in disbelief. I couldn't believe it, that women in my dream was actually a goddess! Dang, I had even said it to Annabeth but hadn't made the connection. I laughed out loud.

"What's so funny?" asked Chris. The twins looked at me curiously while Chris just shook his head.

"Nothing." I lied. That sure was something, seriously, I had met a goddess. I decided to keep quiet about it since I didn't want to cause a commotion like it did with Annabeth. I was guessing that the Hephaestus from my dream was also the Greek god. I considered that none of this was true, but more and more I felt that this was true. I can explain properly, it just seemed to fit in with all the missing information from my life: all those conversations my mom told me to drop, my ability to breathe underwater, and why things began to shake when I got really scared.

Right then I was in a train of thought and I could feel Connor, Chris and Travis looking at me. While they were looking at me they didn't know didn't notice what was appearing above Chris' head. I saw it first.

"Look" I said pointing above Chris' head. Both Travis and Connor turned and gasped at the same time…

"Chris is being claimed~~!" Connor shouted.

Other people turned to see what was going on, as soon as they saw the all gasped. Some stood up, Chiron looked up from his book and straitened up. He rolled down a ramp and came closer to our table to get a better look, because above Chris head there was a floating 3D hologram of scale. Travis motioned for me to stand so I did, and as I looked around I saw others doing the same including Connor. We took a step back from the bench and then kneeled facing Chris, who was standing, looking directly up at the now fading 3D image.

"All hail Chris Rodriguez, son of Nemesis!" Chiron announced. Wow, I thought, so this is what it's like to get claimed. After a while Chiron announced,

"All rise." And we all did simultaneously, "Now we will proceed to the sing-along." Everyone started to walk in direction of the bond fire in the far right corner of the pavilion, naturally I followed. There was a lot of murmuring and pointing while we made our was to the bond fire. I sat next to Connor, Travis and Chris again. After a while of prolonged shuffling, people finally got settled down and we began the sing along.

"Congrats Chris" I whispered.

"Yeah" both the twins said at the same time. Chris smiled, mostly to himself, but shook each of our hands. I got my first glimpse of the magic within this place, though I was going to be blown away again by the sing-along.

The songs were weird and corny but they seemed fun. Why not, I asked myself. I joined the songs and had a blast, the twins were also super enthusiastic and sang with all their might. But by far the coolest thing about the sing-along was the fire. I kept changing height and believe it or not its color. Sometimes it was green, sometimes blue, others regular fiery orange.

I deduced that I changed its appearance depending on the level of interest and participation. Once or twice I caught Annabeth looking at me and each time she quickly averted eye contact. Actually for that matter a lot of people were looking at me.

There were a few girls, cute girls, that gave me dreamy looks, but they didn't catch my attention. Chiron kept studying me throughout the sing-along, it was totally giving me the creeps and made me feel like he still didn't trust me but above all one face caught my attention; it was the girl who had electrocuted me earlier today. She looked super serious; she didn't bother with the sing-along, and never took her eyes of me the whole time. She obviously didn't have a problem with staring people down and making them uncomfortable.

"Who is that?" I whispered to Chris trying not to point. When he saw the girl who was staring at me he answered.

"That's Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus. She defected from the titans 4 years ago, and was said to be a high ranking officer even at twelve. She's the only successful escapee 'child of the big three' ever since this regime started after World War II. She may be extremely powerful but is also extremely wanted. If she were to set foot outside the borders this place would be flocked with titans within minutes. Why, she's looking at you like that? I have no idea. Just don't get on her bad side."

I nodded and then tried to ignore her for the rest of the sing-along. Despite all the strange looks I had a great time with the new guys I met. When we were heading off back to our cabins to sleep, Chris told me he was no longer going to sleep in my cabin so I took the chance and told them how swell of guy's I though they were.

"Hey Perce, I was just going to say the same about you" Chris said then bumped fists with me before saying 'see ya' and walking off with another crowd of teenagers.

"I know I'm swell, Perce" Connor bragged.

"You know what I think so too" Travis said, "That I'm a swell guy, that is."

"No, we think your cool too Perce" Connor said sort of seriously and with that we headed back to the cabin.

It was the first time I got to see where I was staying, and to be honest, I was utterly disappointed. It was basically an old cabin; worn down, messy, packed, and worst of all… regular. All the other cabins were oddly beautiful; diverse was a good word. Of course this being the only regular cabin doesn't make it regular, it's just… there was nothing admirable about the building itself. Other buildings had flower, some where made of precious metals, basically they were all awesome, except this one. As we approached it I held my breath hoping that we would pass it, but no. I blamed it all on my luck, but it didn't get me anywhere so I just stopped complaining and thought about how much worse it could be.

"Hermes is the god of travelers" Connor explained to me, "So he doesn't mind who stay's in his cabin even if you are undetermined."

I nodded in understanding. He have me gave me a sleeping bag and some other things; like toiletries, a toothbrush and toothpaste. After a while I found a place on the floor. I quietly lay down and waited until light out before I took out my only possession: my ring. When I took it off my finger I spun it around in my hand while I thought back a bit.

This ring had come out of nowhere and saved my life and when I told Annabeth that 'they couldn't have contained me' even if they tried, I wasn't bluffing. I was going to wait until everyone was asleep to turn the ring into a sword and then cut off my chains. Don't ask me how, since my hands were chained to the floor, but with this ring I knew there was hope even in the tightest situation. It was an interesting weapon. It seemed more like a container for weapons and made me wonder if there was a way to add new weapons to it. Despite my doubts and questions about the ring I decided something: I had to keep it secret from the people around me. Despite the fact I was telling the truth about everything till now, my credibility to them was little and I didn't need to raise unnecessary eyebrows. With that in mind I slipped the ring back on my finger and went to sleep.

Now me being me, and having the luck I do, will have a terribly bad dream and wake up in cold sweat right? That' correct. Yeah, you heard me: I said 'terribly bad', that how things work for me.

It started with me waking up in dream world in my comfortably weightless body and wearing my normal camp half-blood t-shirt, I think camp half-blood is the place my real body's at, and some white camo pants. I was in a humongous room and its walls looked like they were made of a sturdy, desert, sand colored material. It looked like an airplane hangar. Interestingly enough there were no picture or decorations on the monstrous wall in front of me. I was doing a spin to do a quick sweep of my location, but stopped at about 180 degrees. In the middle of the room dangling by his arms was a young adult. He was hanging about half way up the room and was sweating in pain, his arm joints looked like they were in excruciating pain and there was there was a cat walk behind him where a dracaena stood whipping him with all her might. Despite all this he didn't take his eyes off me. He winced each time he was stuck but made no noise. After about five more minutes the dracaena left.

"pant, How are you doing cuz?" He asked. Again with the cuz thing, just like Hephaestus.

"Better than you, I suppose" I answered. The man tried to laugh but ended up coughing up blood. He was a pretty sad sight.

"Who are you?" I asked which made him smile.

"Why, Apollo of course!" he exclaimed.


	6. Phoenix Demigod

Leo Valdez POV (Point of View)

Life is cruel, people change, emotions are complicated, titans are evil, and so far friends disappoint. Nothing makes sense. The only thing that has never disappointed me in my entire life the and also only thing that never changes is… fire. It keeps me warm, cooks my food, takes care of me, kills my enemies, and basically deals with all my problems. It is what has kept me alive so far and I am going to put it to the test once again. I left had Chicago a few days before and was almost at Toronto when the gas in my stolen car ran out.

"Dang, you give up on me already?" I asked the car. It was a old ford mustang, even old it was oddly beautiful. Whoever I had stolen it from would be super sad when he or she realized it was gone. It was charcoal black and had two white stripes running from its hood and all the way to its tail lights. It had average size rims and a nice stereo but it was useless to me now.

"Dammit!" I yelled to the skies. I was so angry I decided to put all my emotions into my flames. A white and blue streak of flames shot from my palm and engulfed the car in milliseconds. I stepped back and watched the flames turn to orange. It only took a minute before the car in front of me exploded and flames and shrapnel shot in every direction. The flames licked my body and blew my hair back, reaching out almost a good 20 feet. The highway I was on, turned golden for a moment.

I smiled to my self and inhaled the work of my art. Beautiful, I thought. I now stood on a part of the road that you wouldn't notice unless you got stuck there; it was a one of those barren looking forests: no leaves, dark, damp, cold, creepy. I sighed and watched myself as I exhaled steam.

"Nothing for it." I told my self. I was walking the next 123 miles to Toronto.

The trip was uneventful but the tracking was hard. I walked over endless hills and past countless trees. I had read that the average human walks 5 miles an hour. I don't know for how many, but I walked for at least 6-7 hours and aside from that I had a feeling I was doing much less than 5 mph. The trip seemed endless, every time I rounded a corner or peeked over a hill all I saw was more road. I swear, with the mix of my ADHD and my natural lack of patience, I lived a year in a couple hours. I occasionally heard rustling in the woods next to me, but assumed that if there were monsters they would have fled when they got a glimpse of my face.

The woods were beautiful; there trees stood up like monstrosities, the leaves hid the floor from sight and the silence let your thought loose. The bark on the trees was a dark brown, the number of leaves on the floor was surreal. It was like counting them would be just as impossible as counting the grains of sand on a beach. As I walked in the cold, I drifted into my thoughts; thinking about all the adventures I had had so far. When I thought of the skirmish with Atlas the wound in my shoulder began to ache. I thought of my encounter with Gaea and when she killed my mom, which made the wound in my heart ache above all my other battle scars. I was so lost in thought that I didn't hear the coarse hum of an old motor as it approached until it was right on me. An old Jeep pulled up right next to me on the road and kept driving as I walked on forward. In its truck where a bundle of supplies; there was a sack of grain, hay, tanks of kerosene, gasoline, and fertilizers. In its drivers seat was a young girl about my age, maybe a little bit older, her hair was wavy brown and was tied back in a pony tail. Her eyes were brown, and she was wearing a tight light blue shirt and dark blue jeans.

"Hey there stranger" she said to me, "What are you doing out here walking? Did your car break down?"

"Blew up." I corrected.

"Are you serious?" She asked, "Was it a mustang?" I nodded, but refused to look at her, for she might recognize me from some wanted poster.

"Woah, that was some thirty miles back." I shrugged of the statement like it was no big deal, but the truth was my feet were getting tired and I didn't feel like flying.

"Come on, I've got room, plus the next town in another 40 miles up ahead." She reasoned. I looked at her face one more time. Dammit just my type, not good.

"Are you sure." I said glancing at her. No no no, my conscience implored me.

"Of course." She smiled. I jumped in her moving car, and once I was in she sped up.

"I'm Patrick Maxwell, by the way" I lied. What? It was either that or Elvis Bob. Plus I used to like watching Sponge Bob. She took my hand and added…

"Mines, Amanda Lagess." I nodded.

"Um, are you sure it legal for you to be driving" I asked her nervously.

"You said you drove a mustang out here." She pointed out.

"Touché" I acknowledged

"Doesn't matter I I break the law a little there isn't much security in this neck of the woods anyway" she continued. I laughed.

"Glad to know there are still careless people out there" I commented. She smiled like it was a complement.

Afterwards I made up some BS story about how there must have been a leak in my gas tank and that I notice it last minute before it blew up. She told me about how she was headed to a large working farm not too far from the suburbs of Lansing, Michigan. We rode sharing information about each other, though I have to admit everything I said was made up. At least I made her laugh a few times, and when she did she melted my heart. She was nice enough to offer me a place to stay in her family house not too far from the farm.

"We here?" I asked as she stopped the Jeep in a large circular drive way. The stones underneath the car made awkward crunching sounds as we approached the front steps of a large house. Of to our sides were beautiful fields as far as I could see, and in front of us a house loomed over us in a welcoming fashion.

"Pit stop" she answered. There we were in front of a large wooden door, to a house that I couldn't see the end of. She beeped the horn twice and as we waited I got this serious rich vibe from her, but something were off. After two minutes a man wearing a nice suit came out of the large door followed by two other guys'.

"How may I help you Ms. Lagess." The man asked formally.

"Um, could you take what's in the trunk and give it to Sam" she asked.

"Of course" He replied and immediately the two men followed him and started to unload the trunk. I just sat there trying to cover my face and at the same time watch the scene.

"You're rich?" I whispered to her.

"No." She answered.

"We're done Ms. Lagess". The man informed her with the same formality.

"Thanks Marc, you're a life saver." She praised. The man thanked her and waved her off as the other guy's disappeared behind the door. We drove off in silence as I tried to formulate a different question. I took me a while but finally I came up with one.

"You're rich?" I asked again.

"Nooo." She answered trying to make a point with me.

"You totally are!" I exclaimed, "If you own that place-"

"I don't!" She said with finality, "And I'm not rich… my parent are"

"Ha, same thing!" I said. Then notice that strangely she didn't seem to like being rich otherwise I doubt she would be in denial.

"At your service Ms. Lagess" I mocked.

"Stop." She whined playfully. We drove on for a while passing occasional houses and other cars.

"Still" I said, "You're making deliveries and are in a car like this when you have a property and house like that.

"This is my car, I, me, Marcia Lagess, bought it with my own money." She bragged.

"Yeah right." I laughed, "You're what, 15?"

"Yes" she replied.

"Where'd you get the money for a car?" I asked playfully.

"I worked for part and the other part came from my allowance" she answered with then she frowned.

"How much do you get? 1000 dollars a week" I questioned.

"Bah! I wish. I get 300" she sighed. I shook my head in disbelief. I get 0 dollars a week, I thought, much less have real parents. As much as I resented her for the privileges she got, I felt grateful for the fact she was giving me a place to stay. It wasn't exactly the smartest thing to offer to a complete stranger; I mean the person could be a criminal and as it turned out I was.

I asked questions that a normal teenager would ask and while I was at it I managed to keep my identity completely oblivious while giving her a good time. She told me that she and her family moved out her as did many other rich families to get a way from the imposing threat of the savage monsters. She also told me she went to a small school in the area where only about 600 studied and told me that she had got fed up with her rich bubble when she noticed other people suffering and cowering in fear. She was being really nice and opening her self up to me a little all the while her eyes shone beautifully as we drove into the sunset. I told her about how I wanted to change the world and she couldn't agree with me more. Though, she just didn't know how far I would go. She seemed like a young ambitious girl who looked over the raging world from safety and was trying to dream up a solution; sticking to the stereotypical assumptions: monsters are bad, people are good. That could very well be the most unrealistic belief ever. Her innocence had allowed her to allow me a place to stay with her and she still hadn't realized who I was. I didn't hate her for it but I was worried her beliefs would come back and bite her on the butt. I on the other hand knew better and was a conflicted young boy that was trying not to turn bitter, though had already come up with a solution. My plan was to find powerful companions, fight my way to San Diego where the titans resided on Mt. Othrys and destroy them.

We continued talking and exchanging jokes. Finally, after the sun had already gone down, we drove off the road and onto another property. When we stopped in front of the house I was blown away again. The place was so huge that calling it a house was a major understatement. This was a mansion; the lights that shone out of windows in the distance gave it a majestic feeling. She drove her car into a round-about and then casually got out of the Jeep. The engine silently lost it life and the car headlights shutoff. The sound of humming crickets filled the night and the croaking of the occasional toad made the night seem like mother natures natural symphony.

"I think its best that my parents don't see you." She warned me. I couldn't agree more with her.

We approached the mansion carefully looking out for people. We got in unseen and when judgment moment came she expertly snuck me past a few servants. We occasionally ran down corridors, making sharp turns and hiding in random rooms. Believe it or not she had something like an auditorium in her house, not to mention that the living room was like the size of a hotel lobby. When we finally arrived at my secret room I was worn out.

"Stay here." She ordered and I nodded. Yeah right, I thought. She left the room in a hurry looking content and thrilled by my presence. As soon as she left all went eerie quiet, it took a few minutes but suddenly in the distance a door wheezed open and then closed. Foot steps echoed in hallway, the sound making its way through my closed door, then disappeared slowly.

I opened the door and looked around the corner where the footsteps disappeared to. I looked right and left before dashing after the footsteps. The lights in the corridor where a luminous orange that gave the place a cozy feeling thought all that changed as I rounded a fourth or fifth corner. As I rounded the corner I got a glimpse of a man in a white coat; he was semi bald, grey hair, wore silver rimed glasses and stood at the edge of a large steel futuristic vault looking door. Woah, I thought in stun and awe. The man swiftly waved his hand over a brass disc looking object, which was positioned at chest level to the right of the vault. A holographic keyboard appeared along with a monitor. I watched in awe as he typed away furiously, at crazy speed and with proficiency, a few seconds later the large door hissed open and he casually walked in as two guards saluted him. One of the guards whispered into his ear and he nodded, then a second later the door closed behind him.

The whole thing seemed surreal. One thing was for sure, I had definitely gotten myself into something interesting. I walked up to the steel door put my hand on it and could feel every bit of the machinery about it; three tons, double reinforced hinges, temperature resistant, whatever was going on in there need to be kept secret, badly! I walked over to the disc and waved my hand. The holographic key board and monitor appeared. I looked behind me to make sure no one was approaching, then closed my eyes and concentrated. As I cleared my mind, the sound of my lungs and the hum of all the machines sonorously clouded my ears. I felt a camera filming me but ignored it, I concentrated a little longer and then felt the code to the vault slip into my mind. I typed in the characters on the key board and then the vault made the same hissing opening as it did when the old man went in.

"Halt!" the one of the two guards cried as they both came into view from behind the vault door holding the G36C assault rifle in firing positions. Dang, I thought.

"Who are you and how did you open the vault?" The guard spoke again. The guard was dressed in a blue uniform jacked and had an earpiece like his partner. He had short black hair wore clear square glasses, and his eyes were squinted and focused. He looked mildly strong and in a bout his thirties like his partner, who had a buzz cut hair style.

I closed my eyes and breathed slowly.

"Relax. I am unarmed and am simply a guest of honor. I mean no harm." I lied reassuringly as I slowly lifted my hands. The glasses man nodded towards his friend who slowly approached me, probably to do a frisk. The air was tense, the guns waiting. I counted the guard's steps, steps that lead to his death. I focused on my arm, my power just waiting to explode, so I discreetly started to heat up my arm. When the man was almost on me my arm was so hot it was burning the air.

The man twitched as if he just noticed something, but it was too late. I shoved the barrel of the gun off to the right and with my steaming hot left arm attacked with a punch. His wail in pain endlessly echoed down through the corridor, and the fear on the other guards face were drowned by the sound of gunshots. My left arm had burned straight through the approaching guard's chest. The guard's blood spewed around my arm but soon stopped as I completely burnt his insides. The guard with the glasses started shooting furiously. I lifted his buddy and used him as a shield as I prepared a fire ball in my right hand.

The guard with the glasses stopped shooting and started running down the corridor. The fire ball danced to the tip of my two fingers as I imitated a gun with my hand. I aimed it down the corridor and let it fly as the guard shouted into a radio.

"It's the 'Phoenix Demigod' Leo Val-!" he never finished the sentenced. The fire ball hit him and expanded on contact torching his entire body. He wailed in pain and agony as his torched body disappeared around the corner. The sound of the scream echoed into the darkness along with the light of the fire. The guard that I had impaled with my burning arm fell to the ground as I pushed him away. The hissing sound of burning flesh numbed my mind.

"I've done it again. Next headlines: 'The Phoenix Demigod Kills More!'" I imagined. I let out a long sigh. Can't be helped, I thought.

I started down the corridor. This time the hallway no longer had cozy feel, it had more of an opaque and cold feel to it. Florescent lights occasionally flickered as I walked by I made one turn and came face to face with a wide staircase at the bottom another vault door and in front of it a dozen guards, not all human. There was one Cyclopes, who was fiddling with a bone with was an enormous sledgehammer at his side. The Cyclopes' teeth were stained with blood and his single eye was bloodshot. Among the others were 5 blue uniformed guards holding back a vicious hound of dogs who barked furiously in my direction. Noticeably, there were six dracaena, standing tall, all holding bronze spears, and all on high alert.

I put my back to the wall and sighed. For some reason my gut was telling me there was something in this building that I needed to see. Maybe it was the fact that no one got this rich in this depression doing ethical work.

I crouched behind the wall and peeked around the corner and saw the guards again. All of them were still there looking out for me, since word of my entrance had probably gotten around. I clamped my hands together and compressed as much fire together as I could. Just like that I threw it around the corner, before it even hit the floor it blew. Fire shot past the wall, at incredible speed and intensity, and engulfed me as well. Though the fire didn't hurt me, muffled screams assured me that the guards weren't as lucky. The fire finally died down a bit, leaving parts of the ceiling, wall and floor on fire. A plank of wood fell right besides me and broke apart into small embers. As powerful as my bomb was the vault door stood right were it had been, though now it was stained black from smoke and flame.

I started casually walking through the flames, towards the steel door. As I walked unsuspectingly someone swung at me full force. In that moment my instincts took over and I threw myself onto the floor not a moment to son. The Cyclopes' sledgehammer sailed a millimeter above my head, and then hit the wall to my side. The sledgehammer broke into the wall and sent chunks of rock and mounds of dust all over the place. I expertly rolled away, then used flames to launch me up and backwards through the air. I had just lost ground and now standing between me and the door was a Cyclopes.

He tore his hammer out of the wall and glared at me over the raising flames. Cyclopes are immune to fire so for him to stand completely unaffected in the middle of the blazing inferno was expected, though I admit I had forgotten about him.

"Stupid demigod! You can not defeat me with fire" he boasted and then laughed a crazed laugh. I snickered, and then reached into my pocket. My hands closed around a hot bronze object, about 3 or 4 centimeters long and not to wide. I pulled it out and looked down in my hand; there in my hand was a glowing bronze chess piece, specifically: a pawn. The Cyclopes looked at me disbelievingly and still laughing, but started walking towards me as he dragged his sledgehammer.

"You are truly foolish 'Phoenix Demigod'. The titans could use someone of your skill. Yet you fight for the loser's side; the gods side! Why?" the Cyclopes stopped walking towards me and asked.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, "I don't fight for the gods. I fight for me. I owe the gods nothing I am loyal only to myself."

"Then why do you oppose us?" the Cyclopes asked.

"Hate" I said, "I fight for revenge!"

The Cyclopes laughed, then charged. I charged at him as well. We ran at each other in the blazing inferno, and even if only for a moment all seemed quiet. I knew that the first hit would win the battle, and considering that the Cyclopes was around fifteen feet tall, that combined with his hammer meant his reach was a lot longer than mine. I knew I had to dodge.

As I we approached I quickly gathered flames around my arms and tried to compress them and make them as dense as possible. Not only my arms, but my body was now completely lit. Around my arms the gathered flames now resemble wings. The Cyclopes raised the hammer above his shoulder and swung at me, as I came within his range. Right as the hammer was about to hit me, I used the rising hot air, my control over flames and the accumulated fire in my arms to shoot me upward. As I rose the bronze pawn in my hand expanded into a beautiful, sharp, long, lethal sword.

I was right in front of the Cyclopes' face, some flames coming of my body making all my movements shine. I was a blur of light moving trough the air. As I hung in time I looked into the eye of my foe and saw nothing but fear. With one swift move I stuck my sword through his head; in one side, the point out the other. I removed the sword in the same second and flew over his body as it fell to the floor with a thud, lifeless.

I stopped right in front of the door I felt for the brass disk, and found it in the same place that it was on the previous door; at chest height to the right. I waved my hand in front of the disc but nothing happened.

"Oops." I muttered to myself. I tinkered with the disc trying to get it to work, but it was useless. I paced from right to left repeatedly trying to think up a solution; I tried pushing the door, tried punching the door, tried kicking the door, tried burning the door, tried asking the door to open, tried flirting with the door, tried petting the door, I even ran into the door headfirst 5 times, but still nothing worked. The agonizing thing was that my senses were tingling, as if to tell me something big was behind the door. I went back to tinkering with the brass disk and after ten minutes my work paid off.

I turned my sword back into a pawn and slipped it into my pocket and started typing in characters that felt right. Soon after the door opened I walked in blinded by intense light. As soon as I walked in the door behind me closed and the heat on my back immediately ceased. When my eyes adjusted I saw a bunch of surgeon and scientist looking figures all staring at me. I was in an extremely large room, about the size of a medium size airplane's haggard, and there were no windows hinting that it was underground. The room was white and was illuminated by white light. Plastic curtains and wooden walls with no ceilings stood out in the room. There was an enormous books shelf that went from wall to wall with a rolling ladder attached. Some of the surgeons had blood on their gloves and white aprons. Some figures wore mask while other didn't, there were about fifty people total. Everything in the room seemed wrong for some reason, and my senses were going berserk.

"Everyone get down" I ordered, "Or I'll turn all of you idiots into ashes."

Everything was eerie quiet for a while, and interestingly no one got down on the floor they just slowly backed away from me. Their disobedience was ticking me off so I lit my arms and walked towards them. All that did was make them back away quicker.

As I approached a cried in agony caught my attention, it was off to my left behind one of the plastic curtains. The cries continued as I approached, then with one swift move I pushed the curtains to the side.

Strapped to a bed by thick leather, was a girl, in her 20's, but something was happening to her body that was not natural. She continued screaming, unable to gain control; her veins were bulging out, and tears were rolling down from her eyes as she looked at me pleadingly. Her eyes said it all: she wanted to be saved, but I didn't know what to do! Blood rolled down her chin, and her skin started bubbling. She was undergoing a transformation. Her skin continued to bubble and her physique started to change; her arms were growing longer and thicker like her legs, her stomach was expanding, though her head only bubbled. All she could do was scream, and scream, and scream. I turned towards the surgeons.

"Make it stop!" I yelled, but no one came forward. The masked and unmasked people stayed quiet only watching as her body tore itself apart.

"MAKE IT STOP!" I yelled again as she screamed in pain. The pain was too much for her, because before anything else happened the screaming stopped.

Her body was now deformed and the expression on her face was heartbreaking. Blood was now all around her mouth and her body was now limp. She just lay there, eyes were now lifeless, and though I had seen death many times, even killed many times, this was just too cruel. The innocent should be left alone, but despite good sense and moral values under the titans experiments on rational life were allowed and probably funded. This caused my blood to boil, I was almost losing it.

"So is this what you call an experiment fail!" I bellowed. Even through my rage something else caught my eye. In the far left corner of the room there was a steel cage and in it a pair of eyes looked at me. A humanoid figure covered in animal fur looked at me. I couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl or if it once was human; the thing even had a tail. For a while all it did was look at me. In its eyes a plead for help repeated itself.

"I want to die" it croaked. Everyone else in the room turned and gasped. Some smiled, forgetting momentarily that I was there, while others patted each other on the back. Whispers like "it spoke-", and "success" went around. I spent a few minutes just staring at the monster, with my sudden experience, my emotions and values just got mixed up. The figures in white took the opportunity and suddenly as if on q they all tuned at the same time and ran away from me. Some ran to the opposite side of the room and entered some sort of elevator, while others ran to a vault door like the one I had come in through. For some reason I let them escape, I was no longer in the mood action. This world was just too cruel, and this monster felt the same way: as its one wish was to leave it. I sat there looking into its eyes from a distance. The silence was sad and the air was dense, the monster was weeping a tearless cry and I remained in a daze.

After an hour or maybe two, I got up and pulled out my bronze chess piece. The pawn turned into a sword at my will, as I walked up to the cage.

"Monster as someone who wants to change this world and save the good people, I have failed you" I spoke defiantly, "Though I don't know anything about you, I feel that this was not your choice and as to value your last wish I shall make your death swift."

The monster/thing just looked at me with its human eyes. For a moment I almost cried, though I could explain why. With one last look into those eyes and at the one I had failed I raised my sword over my head and brought it down through its head. Just like that. Though killing it may seem cruel it was done from a wish of something that had lost the will to live.

I retracted my sword from its skull and sent a jet of flames from my fingers upon the body. In the daunting silence my motivation was renewed, and as I watched the body burn my lust for a new world grew. With the passing of the hours, the flames died down and all that was left was of the nameless monster were ashes. As I looked around the room I found an empty jar so I decided to drop the ashes inside and take it up with me.

With one last look around the room I decided that the information and history of events that was in this room needed to be eradicated. So I expertly torched the room with long jets of fire, a fire so intense it could burn anything, a fire of death and also a fire for restarting.

Leo Valdez POV

As I ran through the flaming corridors I kept looking for the girl who had brought me here. She's already out, I thought. I was wondering if she knew what was going on in the basement of the building. Though my mind was thinking about different things, certain things remained problematic. For one I was lost and I couldn't find my way around the building. Secondly even though I was immune to fire if this building came down on me I would die. Just as I came to that conclusion a wall that I had just put my hand against for support crumbled. The ceiling started to cave in and explosions in the building shook the floor. I concentrated deep on my power with fire and just as the ceiling lost to the fire a tower of bright white flames shot up around me, burning everything above before it could touch me. The tower of white flames burnt through the ceiling and every floor above the one I was on with a little more effort on my part the flames around me condensed and formed the body of the phoenix I was famous for. My body was now the fire and my arms were now wings, a tail was stabilizing me as I flapped my wings again and again. When the tower of flames finally died down, debris once again started falling towards me. I slowly rose, story by story, flapping furiously, and then finally I broke free into billows of smoke that polluted the sky.

I flew out into the dark night sky that illuminating the path as I went. The house was collapsing slowly, totally engulfed in flames, soon it would be totally destroyed. I looked down next to the house and saw group of people looking up at me, though they were to far bellow for me to see their expressions but some were kneeled while others lay on the floor. One person stood out among the others, mainly because she wasn't wearing white; it was Amanda, the brown hair girl who had brought me here, and she was being held by some older man or to be better described a man in white. That's all I saw as I flew away from the burning house that night, and to be honest I had seen too much. What kind of game was fate playing with me to arrange such preposterous and random coincidence?

After a while of flying I finally landed at the top of a hill. The night was cold and the lights of houses where all out. I stood in the strong winds and took the chance to finish one last aspect of business.

"Be free" I said as I emptied the ashes of the monster into the wind. Now all I had to do was get to Toronto… alive.


	7. Chapter 7

Hey guy's. I owe all of you an apology for taking so long to write. My life has been hectic and seriously distracting, but as an excuse that wouldn't count so I have decided to start the New Year by writing and with it I am beginning a new story.

The story isn't completely new since it follows the same plot and idea that I established with 'The Last Flame' but it could be seen as a longer and polished version of the original.

If some one happens to be interested click on my name and check out the second story.


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